Method of chip insertion

ABSTRACT

A method for inserting chips into the edge of record cards or the like. A pouch is skived into the edge of a card into which a chip is inserted. The pouch is then sealed by applying pressure and heat. The assembly is then abraded to the original thickness of the card.

llnited States Patent Inventors Mack R. Chaffee Candor; Thomas M.Paulson, East Brunswick, both of NJ.

Appl. No. 754,868

Filed Aug. 23, 1968 Patented Jan. 11, 1972 Assignee InternationalBusiness Machines Corporation Arnionk, N.Y.

METHOD OF CHIP INSERTION 2 Claims, 13 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 156/154,

156/153,156/211,156/293,156/303.1 Int. Cl B321) 3/18 Field of Search156/293,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Kestner Allen Fest Claff et a1.

Moore Primary Examiner-Benjamin R. Padgett Assistant Examiner-B. H. HuntAttorneys-Hanifin and .lancin and Maurice H. Klitzman ABSTRACT: A methodfor inserting chips into the edge of record cards or the like. A pouchis skived into the edge of a card into which a chip is inserted. Thepouch is then sealed by applying pressure and heat. The assembly is thenabraded to the original thickness of the card.

PAIENTEB .mm 1972 31534; 1 52 r EU 3 OF 6 lll BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION The present invention relates to record cards for informationretrieval and more particularly to record cards which are selectable bymeans of indicia attached to said cards.

The prior art shows generally two methods of attaching indicia in theform of chips to record cards. One method is to attach a chip to thesurface of a card by adhesive means. However, a major disadvantage ofthe prior art method is that in handling by machine operators and duringmachine processing of the cards, the chips are often separated from thesurface of the card causing the indicia to be lost.

Another known method is a lamination process in which two sheetsapproximately one-half the normal thickness of the record card orapproximately 0.003 inch, are coated with adhesive material on one sideof each of said half thickness sheets, a chip is placed between saidcoated sides and the entire laminated assembly is then heated andpressed to achieve a complete card with indicia attached. This methodhas the major disadvantage of having the lamination separate duringhandling or machine processing so that the entire card is destroyed.Further, because of irregularities in the adhesive material, thethickness of the card is not uniform across its entire length and width.

It is, therefore, the principle object of the present invention to imbedchips in a unit record card in an improved manner.

A further object is to attach chips to a record card in an improvedmanner where the assembly thus formed will be able to withstand handlingand machine processing with no separation of the chips from the card.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the above objects, a recordcard is provided with an indicia bearing chip inserted into the edge ofsaid card so that said card may be identified and selected by means ofsaid chip. Further, a method is provided in which a pouch is skived intothe edge of a sheet with a very sharp and thin cutting blade deep enoughto accept a chip. The chip which is precoated on both sides with heatand pressure sensitive material is inserted into the skived card. Heatand pressure are then applied to seal the chip to the sheet and to closethe opening, The assembly is then abraded to approximately the originalthickness of the card.

For the purpose of the present invention the term skiving means theseparation of the fibers along the edge of a sheet to form a pouchtherein.

The method of the present invention eliminates the problems of the priorart in handling of the cards by operators and in machine processing. Thechip which has been inserted into the edge of the card is not exposed toforces which might tend to tear away a chip, which is merely attached tothe surface of the card, nor is the card, being a single sheet, aslikely to be damaged as the laminated card in machine processing.

One major advantage of the present invention is that precision in theorder of 10.002 inch can be achieved in the position of the chip asopposed to i0.250 inch in the prior art.

A feature of the present invention is that there are many uses for cardsmade by this method. Among these are: (1) cards in which the chip is areinforced piece of magnetic tape containing data which can be erasedand new data written; (2) cards wherein the chip provides a means forselecting a card from a deck by magnetic means; (3) cards wherein, inaddition to providing selection, the chip also contains data storagecapability.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

DESCRIPTION The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages ofthe invention will be apparent from the following more particulardescription of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings.

In the Drawings FIG. 1 is a sectioned top view of an apparatus toperform the method of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the hopper and card feed.

FIG. 3 is a sectioned view of station 2 which is the skiving station.

FIG. 4 is a sectioned view of station 3 which shows the details ofchipinsertion.

FIG. 5 is a sectioned view of station 4 which shows the details of theheat sealing.

FIG. 6A is a sectioned view of station 5 which shows the abrading of thecard with the chip inserted.

FIG. 6B is a side view of the card with chip inserted with the abradingroller applied.

FIG. 7 is a sectioned view of station 6 showing the card and hopperejection.

FIG. 8 shows the method schematically in 5 separate drawings.

FIG. 8A shows schematically the start of the skiving operation atstation 2.

FIG. 8B shows the end of the skiving operation at station 2.

FIG. 8C shows the chip inserted at station 3.

FIG. 8D shows the heat sealing at station 4.

FIG. 8E shows schematically the abrading at station 5.

Referring to FIG. 1, a chip imbedding machine 10 is'shown which includesa main frame 12, and a turntable 14, rotatably mounted thereon. The mainframe has fixedly mounted thereon six equally spaced stations. Thesestations include a card feeding station 20, skiving station 30, a chipinsertion sta' tion 40, a heat-sealing station 50, an abrading station60, and a card eject station 70, each of which will be hereinafterexplained in greater detail. These pockets are capable of retaining arecord card in a precise position. Turntable 14 can sequentially stepthe card around to each of the equally spaced stations so that work canbe performed on the card. Turntable 14 is stepwise rotated by a steppingmotor which is not shown. Said stepping motor operates when allmicroswitches 23 have been activated by the tools at all six stationsmoving to their initial or nonwork positions. In this condition acomplete circuit is made to apply the necessary voltage to the steppingmotor to allow it to index turntable 14 through an angle of 60.

FIG. 2 shows in detail the card feeding station 20. Hopper 21 which ismounted on main frame 12 holds a stack 28 of cards. The bottom most card18 of the stack is fed from the hopper to card pocket 16 by feed finger22, which is movable mounted beneath the stack of cards on main frame12. Microswitch 23 is mounted on main frame 12 in line with feed finger22 in such a manner that when the feed finger returns to the initial orfeed position, microswitch 23 is activated which causes the turntable tobe advanced to the next station. Card 18 is fed into pocket 16. Pocket16 holds the card in a precise position with respect to the various workstations fixedly attached to the main frame as the turntable is indexed.The card is held in position in the card pocket by means of a vacuumsupplied to pocket 16 through lines 26 from main vacuum stem 25. Mainvacuum stem 25 is mounted in the hub of the turntable 14 with supplylines 27 running to each of six pockets 16. A plurality of vacuum lines26 provide the vacuum necessary to hold card 18 in the precise positionand flat in pocket 16.

FIG. 3 shows in detail the card-skiving station 30. The skiving blade 31with the top retaining shoulder 32 is mounted in accurate dovetailslides 34. Said slides being mounted by housing 36 to main frame 12 insuch position that blade 31, when advanced, skives a pouch 37 into eachof longitudinal edges 19 of card 18. Skiving knife 31 is moved by airpressure in air cylinder 39 which is mounted in housing 36.Microswitches 23 are mounted on frame 12 in line with skiving knife 31so that when the skiving knife returns to its initial position, theswitch is activated which in turn causes the turntable 14 to movethrough a 60angle to the next station.

FIG. 4 shows a side view of the chip insertion station. Card 18 withpouches 19 caused by the skiving, is then positioned for chip 41 to beinserted into pouch 19. Chip feed knife 42 is mounted in accuratedovetail slides 43 so that when activated said knife urges a coated chip41 into the pouch 37 on card 18. The chips 41 are contained in a stack44 in chip hopper 46. Microswitches 23 are activated in the same manneras at the previous station so that when the chip feed knife retracts toits initial position, the microswitch is operated to move the turntable14 to the next station.

FIG. 5 shows a side sectional view of the heat sealing station 50. Whenturntable 14 comes to rest with a card 18 in position for the heatsealing operation to be performed, heat is applied to heat pad surfaces51 which are mounted on the bottom of heat block 52 by calrod heater 53,which is imbedded within heat block 52. Heat block 52 is mounted onslide 55 above the card. Slide 55 is movable in the vertical directionand controlled by air cylinder 57 mounted above slide 55 on housing 56.Cable 54 supplies power to heater 53.

FIG. 6A shows the abrading station 60. Abrading wheels 61 are attachedto abrader motor 62 mounted in support housing 63.

Venier 64 mounted on top of support housing 63 controls the height ofthe abrading wheel 61. Support housing 63 is fixedly mounted on mainframe 12. The rotary motion of turntable 14 past the abrading station 60is used to insure the entire card is abraded by the rotating abradingwheels 61.

Referring to FIG. 6B, the motion of the abrading wheel 61 is shownpassing over the chip 41 imbedded in card 18. Note that the direction ofrotation of abrading wheel 61 is opposite to the direction of cardtravel at the point of contact. The abrading operation removes theexcess build up above 0.007 inch due to the increased thickness of thechip and the card. The abrading operation is performed as turntable 14is moving from the heat-sealing station 50 to the card eject station 70and not while the turntable is in a stopped position.

Referring to FIG. 7, the card eject station 70 will now be described.Card ejector finger 71 movable mounted in ejector housing 72, iscontrolled by air pressure from air cylinder 76 which is mounted inejector housing 72. When turntable 14 has stopped at eject station 70,microswitch 75 is activated thereby breaking the vacuum and allowingcard 18 to be released. Eject finger 71 urges card 18 into stack 73contained in hopper 74 by contacting longitudinal edge 19 of said cardand moving said card in a horizontal direction to the card hopper.

The positioning method of the card and skiving is illustrated in FIGS.8A through 8E. Referring to FIG. 8A, the skiving blade 31 is shown inposition to form a pouch in longitudinal edge 19 ofcard 18.

FIG. 8B illustrates the skiving operation with the skiving tool bladeinserted in the card. It is this step which forms pouch 37 in thelongitudinal edge 19 of card 18.

Referring to FIG. BC, the chip 41 is then inserted in pouch 37. Theassembled chip and card is then sealed in position by heat-sealingoperation. This heat sealing step closes the opening of the pouchleaving the chip in precise position in the pouch.

Abrading wheels 61 are shown in FIG. 8E for carrying out the step ofsmoothing the high spots caused by the insertion of the chip 41 into theedge of the card.

The method of inserting a chip into the edge ofa sheet comprises thefollowing steps:

First, a pouch is skived into the edge of a sheet whose thickness isapproximately 0.007 inch, by a very sharp and thin blade;

second, a chip is precoated on both sides with an adhesive coating andsaid chip is inserted into said pouch;

third, heat and pressure are applied to said sheet to seal said chip tosaid sheet and to close the pouch. typical parameters of theheat-sealing operation are, temperature 350 F.; applied pressure 35pounds per square inch, and application time equal to one second;

fourth, the assembled chip and sheet are abraded to remove built-upmaterial in excess of the original thickness of the sheet.

OPERATION Referring now to FIG. 2, the operation of a preferredembodiment for performing the method of the invention will be described.In the preferred embodiment there are six-card pockets l6 equally spacedaround a movable turntable 14. The various operations to be describedmay all be occurring simultaneously on different cards at variousstations. For the purpose of this description. the card referred to maybe considered the first card operated on at each station.

A record card 18 is fed by card feed finger 22 from the bottom of astack 28 of record cards 18. Card feed finger 22 moves in a directionperpendicular to the longitudinal edge 19 of card 18 to urge said cardinto card pocket 16. Card pocket 16 is constructed to very closetolerances to hold the record card in a precise position with respect toeach of the operational stations. When the card is situated in cardpocket 16, card feed finger 22 is moved back and activates microswitch23 thereby causing a vacuum to be applied which holds the card flat andsecurely in position in card pocket 16. The vacuum remains appliedthroughout the successive operations until the assembly is complete andthe card is to be ejected at the card eject station 70. When theoperation of the card feed station is completed, the stepping motor isactivated thereby causing turntable 14 to rotate through 60 so that thecard under consideration appears at the card skiving station 30.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the operation of the card-skiving station willbe described. Air pressure applied to cylinder 38 forces skiving knife31 into the longitudinal edge 19 of record card 18. Top retainingshoulder 32 mounted above the skiving blade 31 provides a surfaceagainst which the separate fibers of the card can move withoutseparating or tearing. A pouch 37 is thus formed in the longitudinaledge 19 of the card 18. When the pouch has been skived, the skivjng toolis then moved back to its initial position causing microswitch 23 to beactivated thereby causing turntable 14 to be rotated and the card underconsideration moved to chip insertion station 40.

Referring now to FIG. 4, at chip insertion station 40, the bottommostchip 41 of a stack 44 of chips is urged into the pouches 37 on eachlongitudinal edge of the record card. Chip feed knife 42 which ismounted in accurate dovetail slides 43 is then moved back to its initialposition contacting microswitch 23 which then allows the turntable torotate to the heat sealing station.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the heat sealing operation is performed by heatpad surfaces 51 being forced downward against the areas on the cardwherein the chips are contained.

Power is supplied to calrod heater 53 imbedded in heat block 52 by cable54. Air cylinder 57 controls the movement of slides 55 against the card.

Typical parameters for the heat sealing operation are as follows:Temperature of heat pad surface 51 equal to 350 F.; applied pressureequal to 35 pounds per square inch; application time equal to onesecond. After application of heat and pressure at the heat-sealingstation 50, two-way cylinder 57 moves the heat block away from the cardscausing slide 55 to contact microswitch 23 which in turn activates thestepping motor and causes the turntable 14 to rotate.

Referring to FIG. 6A, abrading wheels 61 which are driven by electricmotor 62 mounted on support 63 rotate in a direction opposite to therotation of turntable 14. The abrading operation is performed whileturntable 14 is moving past the abrading wheels. A venier adjustment 64is provided to control the position of the abrading wheels with respectto the card and thereby control the thickness of the card in the area ofthe chip. The typical dimension for the thickness of the card isapproximately 0.007 inch.

Referring now to FIG. 7, turntable 14 is rotated until the card underdiscussion is placed at the card eject station 70. When turntable 14stops at card eject station 70, the card feed limit switch 23 isactivated. Air under pressure is supplied to air cylinder 76 mounted inejector housing 72. The cylinder causes ejector finger 71 to moveforward until it trips the vacuum and limit switch 75. The vacuum andlimit switch breaks the vacuum holding the card and reverses thedirection of air to the other end of the air cylinder 76 which reversesthe direction of ejector finger 71. The ejector finger then urges thecard 18 into the stack 73 contained in card hopper 74. When ejectorfinger 71 completes this operation, limit switch 23 is activated whichcompletes one cycle of operation of the apparatus.

It must be noted that other cards are being operated on at the variousstations in sequence.

Although what has been described is a preferred embodiment of anapparatus to perform the method of the invention, the method is notrestricted to this apparatus. Any apparatus where the necessary stepscan be performed in the proper sequence is suitable to meet the objectsof the invention.

In general, the method consists of skiving a pouch into an edge or aplurality of edges of a sheet, inserting a chip into said pouches,sealing said pouch with said chip imbedded therein,

and abrading said assembled sheet with chip imbedded therein to theoriginal thickness of said sheet so that said sheet may be used for anypurpose which requires an indicia securely imbedded within the sheet.

What is claimed is:

l. A method ofimbedding a magnetic metallic chip into the edge of arecord card comprising the steps of:

a. skiving a pouch into the edge of said record card;

b. applying an adhesive coating to both sides of said magnetic metallicchip;

c. inserting said magnetic metallic chip into the pouch formed by saidskiving;

d. heating said record card with said magnetic metallic chip insertedtherein to seal the chip to said card;

e. abrading said record card to achieve approximately the originaldimension of said card.

2. A method of imbedding a chip capable of bearing information into edgeof a carrier having a thickness of less than 15 milli-inches,comprising:

skiving a pouch into the edge of said carrier; applying an adhesivecoating to both sides of said chip;

inserting said coated chip into a pouch formed by said skivheating saidcarrier to melt said adhesive coating;

applying pressure to said carrier to seal said chip within said carrier.

1. A method of imbedding a magnetic metallic chip into the edge of arecord card comprising the steps of: a. skiving a pouch into the edge ofsaid record card; b. applying an adhesive coating to both sides of saidmagnetic metallic chip; c. inserting said magnetic metallic chip intothe pouch formed by said skiving; d. heating said record card with saidmagnetic metallic chip inserted therein to seal the chip to said card;e. abrading said record card to achieve approximately the originaldimension of said card.
 2. A method of imbedding a chip capable ofbearing information into edge of a carrier having a thickness of lessthan 15 milli-inches, comprising: skiving a pouch into the edge of saidcarrier; applying an adhesive coating to both sides of said chip;inserting said coated chip into a pouch formed by said skiving; heatingsaid carrier to melt said adhesive coating; applying pressure to saidcarrier to seal said chip within said carrier.